Former spy to speak at Bellingham library Thursday

After hearing her talk about serving 32 years in the Central Intelligence Agency, a woman in the audience told Martha D. Peterson she "didn’t look like a spy.’’

By Chris Bergeron/Daily News staff

Milford Daily News

By Chris Bergeron/Daily News staff

Posted Jun. 16, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jun 16, 2013 at 4:04 PM

By Chris Bergeron/Daily News staff

Posted Jun. 16, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jun 16, 2013 at 4:04 PM

» Social News

After hearing her talk about serving 32 years in the Central Intelligence Agency, a woman in the audience told Martha D. Peterson she "didn’t look like a spy.’’

What should the CIA’s first female operations officer in Moscow - who kicked a KGB goon in the shins - look like?

Forget Mata Hari.

See for yourself at the Bellingham Public Library, Thursday, June 20, at 6 p.m., when "Marti’’ Peterson will discuss her thrilling memoir, "The Widow Spy.’’

Subtitled "My CIA Journey from the Jungles of Laos to Prison in Moscow,’’ Peterson’s tale chronicles her fascinating journey from a typical girlhood to wartime widow at age 27, all the way to her pioneering role during the Cold War.

"For 32 years, I couldn’t talk about what I did for a living,’’ she said. "Now, I enjoy speaking about it.’’

Peterson’s life might seem stranger than fiction. But the CIA read her manuscript four times before publication so you’ll know you’re hearing a true account of life in the shadows.

Now retired, she’s telling her story in Bellingham because it’s the hometown of her first husband, John Peterson, who was killed in Laos in 1972 while serving with the CIA.

Growing up in Darien, Conn., Marti liked to camp out, took ballet lessons and was president of the high school Spanish club.

An aspiring teacher, her life began to change at Drew University in New Jersey when she fell in love with and later married John Peterson, an ambitious and patriotic young man whose parents had emigrated from Germany after World War II.

A former Eagle Scout and "all-American kid,’’ Peterson had joined the CIA after serving with the U.S. Special Forces in Vietnam.

In the midst of that war, Peterson accompanied her husband to Pakse, Laos, where he served as a CIA paramilitary officer.

Throughout the early chapters, she details with a sharp and humorous eye the surprises she experienced living in the boonies of Laos, where a reptile once relieved itself on her dinner plate and the living room had a sandbag bunker for protection against mortar attacks.

Despite the hardships, Peterson never considered going home alone. "I wouldn’t have left without John’’ she said. "We were in it together. It was part of who I was.’’

In her book’s most poignant passage, she recalled her shock and pain on Oct. 19, 1972, when John Peterson was killed when enemy troops likely using Russian weapons shot down his helicopter.

The young widow eventually decided to join the CIA to fulfill her husband’s mission and forge a career that used both her experience abroad and language skills.

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After training in Russian, martial arts and spycraft, Peterson was assigned to Moscow in 1975, where she worked as an operations officer under cover as a supposed clerk at the U.S. Embassy.

From her home in Wilmington, N.C., she recalled Moscow as "a lonely, isolated place with a harsh operating environment.’’

Peterson began working with Soviet agent Alexsandr Ogorodnik, an official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who was passing valuable secrets to the CIA.

Those chapters detailing the recruitment and handling of Ogorodnik capture the tension of working undercover with an agent who faced torture and death if discovered.

Since the Russian secret police considered her a low level embassy functionary, she roamed dark streets and deserted parks freely, making "dead drops,’’ retrieving documents and leaving messages at secret locations.

Without giving too much away, Peterson was involved in a historic confrontation with KGB agents while undercover and, according to legend, sent two Soviet officers to the hospital with kicks to the groin.

In a grainy black-and-white photo, now displayed in both the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., and the KGB museum in Moscow, several burly KGB men can be seen trying to detach an electronic monitoring device that was attached to her bra.

Peterson was briefly imprisoned by the Russians, who ordered her out of the country.

She continued to work for the CIA through 2003, including an overseas posting, but declined to give details of her duties. Heck, after remarrying, she only told her two children what she did when they were teenagers.

While she enjoyed the Ben Affleck-directed thriller "Argo,’’ Peterson said Hollywood movies "generally romanticize’’ spies and espionage to make it "more like James Bond’’ than it really is.

Peterson, who earned the prestigious Donovan Award – named after the Agency’s "father’’ – and the George H.W. Bush Award for Excellence in Counterterrorism, remains a devoted supporter of the CIA and its mission.

"There’s thousands of dedicated people doing an amazing job in a dangerous world,’’ she said.

Published by Red Canary Press, "The Widow Spy’’ is available on Amazon, at Barnes & Noble, Nook and Kindle or at www.widowspy.com.